Current Events: February 2006 Archives

Don Knotts died last night of lung cancer at age 81. He will, of course, most famously be remembered as the bumbling deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. Eva and I were pleased to hear his voice as as Turkey Mayor in last fall’s Chicken Little. As a child, I absolutely loved Knotts in The Reluctant Astronaut, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and — my favorite — The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. I still hum the organ music from that movie even though I haven’t seen it since probably around 1970. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Knotts, who lived in West Los Angeles, died Friday night of lung cancer at UCLA Medical Center, according to Sherwin Bash, his longtime manager.

Family members said that his longtime friend Griffth was one of his last visitors at Cedars on Friday night.

Despite health problems, Knotts had kept working in recent months. He lent his distinctive, high-pitched voice as Turkey Mayor in Walt Disney’s animated family film “Chicken Little,” which was released in November 2005. He also did guest spots in 2005 on NBC’s “Las Vegas” and Fox’s “That ’70s Show.” He occasionally co-headlined in live comedy shows with Tim Conway, his sometime co-star in Disney films such as “The Apple Dumpling Gang.” Knotts also appeared as the TV repairman in director Gary Ross’s whimsical 1998 comedy “Pleasantville,” and voiced the part of T.W. Turtle in the 1997 animated feature “Cats Don’t Dance.”

 Here is Knotts as Barney Fife:

Here is a more recent photograph:

Finally, here a few sound clips of Don Knotts as Barney Fife:

• Barney’s nickname
• Nip it in the bud

May he rest in peace.

“Let me tell you, this was an agonizing decision for me,” said Howard W. Stone Jr., vice chairman of the school board, who is black. “We’ve had three black school superintendents who didn’t work out, and I sure didn’t want to leave black people and especially black students with the impression that a black can’t lead.

“Did I want to turn this system over to a white man? Not if I’d had my druthers. But after looking at all of the candidates, this was the best guy to lead the system, raise the test scores and get our kids the best education possible.”

Can you imagine for a moment if a white school board member for, say, the Dallas Independent School District had said, “Did I want to turn this system over to a African-American man? Not if I’d had my druthers.” It would be front-page headlines and the school board member would deservedly be kicked off the board. La Shawn writes:

Another generation of black kids have to settle for an inferior education, which will increase the need for race-based programs so they won’t be totally left behind the rest. The cycle will continue until parents decide, en masse, that their children’s academic preparation trumps politics.

This is another case of “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are on edge” (Ezekiel 18:2). I’m encouraged that black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson are losing their influence while new leaders like T.D. Jakes are becoming tremendously popular. Jakes tells people that “until your attitude is corrected, you can’t be corrected….You cannot expect the whole human race to move over because you had a bad childhood.” (Woman, thou art loosed!, page 137). It will probably take a while, but I believe that the winning ideas of people like Jakes will ultimately triumph over the losing ideas of Jackson.